There was a special alert in 1989 about a guy who murdered his 4 month pregnant girlfriend by strangling her and weighing her body down w/ concrete in a lake. The man they believed went to college under an assumed name in the 1970's and would now be a veteranarian or a white collar professional. The girlfriend was named Jo Ellen I believe. Does anyone remember this case or know anything about it?

angiev

By some chance, did this guy fail out of medical school?

Justin

You know, I actually recall a special bulletin on the case you described. But what I actually recall about the case was that they said the murder took place in 1970. Indeed, the victim was chained underwater at a lake. Plus, they showed a computer-enhanced photo to show how the man might appear 20 years later. But I don't recall the name of either the victim or the accused killer. Nor do I recall where the crime took place.

To my best recollection, this segment was never rerun on Lifetime.

Perhaps youre thinking of the case of Rachel Timmerman from Michigan?? Rachel gave birth to a baby and named her Shannon VerHage. Shortly after Rachel was raped..by a Man now known as Marvin Gabrion. To make a long story short the man who witnessed the rape disappeared (conveniently) and is presummed dead. Rachel surrendered custody temporarily to her boyfriends parents to make a better life for Shannon. Shannon started going for visits with her mother, soon after Rachel & Shannon both disapperead, but her father received a letter saying she was eloping and would be in touch very soon. A few more letters arrived post marked from Little Rock. Weeks later, after receiving all those letters, police found her. She had been blindfolded, gagged, chained to a cement block and thrown into a lake alive. She had never really left the area all along, and there has been no sign of baby Shannon since.

Maybe this is the case your speaking of? I dont know. Even if its not this is a very strange case.... I cant seem to find any information about an update on Shannon.

Theres much more to this strange story heres a link from a person web page of Shannons grandmother.

http://www.kats-korner.com/child/verhage.html

This segment aired in 1989 and was a brief special alert case that aried w/ 3 or 4 other ones at the end of the show. I actually believe it was the episodewhere the teenaged boys video taped a fire they had set to a house and an update of the man who had hired a man to kill his restaurant busness rival and had from escaped prison and was captured in Arizona. This case actually aired a man who had a long lost daughter he never knew about and b/c Unsolved mysteries aired this man talking about the fugitive, the show helped him be reunited w/ his daughter and old girlfriend.

When I first read your post, I thought this might have been the Richard Bocklidge (sp?) story. However, that case was shown on Lifetime yesterday and it sounds nothing at all like what you have described. So, I'm baffled. I don't think I've seen the story you're describing, and I can only assume it's another one that hasn't been rerun as Kane said.

Justin

There was a special alert in 1989 about a guy who murdered his 4 month pregnant girlfriend by strangling her and weighing her body down w/ concrete in a lake. The man they believed went to college under an assumed name in the 1970's and would now be a veteranarian or a white collar professional. The girlfriend was named Jo Ellen I believe. Does anyone remember this case or know anything about it?


Angiev -

I never thought in a million years that I would have information about this for you, but the killer's name was Michael Kline. The case was profiled during an "FBI alert", and has not been repeated on Lifetime. All of your recollections are correct.

Any updates on this case?

These are the cases that I wish they would post on the UM website. It would be great to get some of these cases solved.

I mean, if the John Burns case can be solved, ANY case can be!

Michael Louis Kline or Cline is who this person was referring to. He was I believe from the Kansas City Suburbs and killed his girlfriend who turned out to be 3 months pregnant and dumped her chained into a lake. I don't know what came of him or his case though.

Michael Louis Kline or Cline is who this person was referring to. He was I believe from the Kansas City Suburbs and killed his girlfriend who turned out to be 3 months pregnant and dumped her chained into a lake. I don't know what came of him or his case though.


Yes, this was the case of Michael Louis Kline/Klein, who killed his girlfriend Jo Ellen Wygel on July 2, 1970 (forty years ago this Friday). This occured in Winnebago, MO, and Jo Ellen's body was dumped in Lake Winnebago.

Charli-Ann

I did a little digging and came across this link. It turns out that the correct spellings of the surnames are "Cline" and "Weigel".

http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/index.php?showtopic=39437&st=0&#last